Video Tutorials

Friday, April 26, 2013

My son Brandon is 3, and 3 is hard. Not sure why they call it the terrible twos, three is worse. I saw it in my oldest son the same way. There are such cute moments, but then Brandon can be such a peanut (his nickname). The picture was taken at a Chuck E Cheese photo booth, I thought it was just too cool to not do something with it. The chaos of his life so far as being three a lot has changed, he got a new sister and his daddy is in Afghanistan. That is a lot for a little guy to deal with, or should I say mommy has to deal with, hehe. I created this layout to remind me of how chaotic his life (and our whole family) is at age three.

I used all the wonderful supplies given to us in the April Flamingo 4 stash including the packaging. We got a box of Pink Paislee Chipboard, Metal clip, Month cards, and Prima sequin gems.

Here you can see them in their final form up close. I used the monthly cards and cut out letters to create the new words of his name and of his life. I used the box, string, and alpha chipboard (in 2 ways) for background, texture, and for the word three. The sequin gems were used for texture and the metal clip was used as an addition to the words to describe my son.

Head on over to Flamingo Scraps to see the other cool projects create for the April Flamingo 4.

Below is a tutorial of how I took these items and converted them with Gesso and spray mist into the layout you see above.

2) Create the backbone for you layout. I lay may papers down first and glue down what I can with my regular glue glider (I use an ATC glue gun). Ink the edge of you papers for a better effect when done.

3) Glue down your objects. If there is a part of your layout that you do not want to have gesso and mist on it then do not glue it down yet or cover it with sticky notes. I covered me picture with sticky notes so it would not get covered with the gesso and mists. I also added some extra glue over the cluster on the left for added effect. Let this dry completely, it will probably take over night to do this.

4) Cover your items in gesso. You can cover up some of the papers, strings, metals, what ever you like. if it does not get a coat of gesso then the mists will not be as bright. Yuo can put a thick or a light a layer of gesso as you wish. This is where playing by making a few ATCs can be helpful. Let this dry completely, it can also take 4-5 hours to dry. Do not use a heat gun to dry, it will bubble your glue and gesso and warp your paper.

5) Pick out a color and spray it. Do it at random, have fun with it. You can spray more than one color at a time, but they will blend. If you want distinct different colors you have to wait for each to dry independently before you apply the next mist.

6) Keep spraying with you different colors or shades until you have the look you want. Play with it, have fun and get messy. Use you finger to rub the mist in. Spray lots of layers for a deeper effect.

7) When your mist is dry add in the papers, pictures, or other embellishments that you did not want to get misted. I added the little number 3 paper squares you see in the this picture, they would have been covered and unable to read if I did it at the beginning. At this point pull off the sticky notes covering anything up, it is dry and you are safe to pull them off now.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

At 4 months old we had some wonderful pictures taken of the kids, myself and and mom. This little gem came out of it of Catherine. She looks like she is just staring right at you, piercing you with her gaze. Such a sweet precious baby girl.

I am really loving the mixed media/grunge/steampunk feel of scrapbooking lately. I love the layers and texture it all brings, and if you do it just the right way it does not take away from the picture(s) you are placing on your layout. The other part I love about these types of layouts is it give me a chance to use bits and pieces of found items, partially used embellishments, and other fun trinkets I have stashed away in my scrap room.

I used a mixture of the Prima Engraver papers and stickers plus also the Pink Paislee Secret Crush papers/tabs/stickers/cards.

Friday, April 12, 2013

In March of 2011 Morgan was playing in the backyard and found a four leaf clover. He was so excited, he could not believe, nor I, that he first found one and second that he found it within 15 minutes of hunting right in our own backyard. So cool!

I used the wonderful Graphic 45 Place in Time paper pad with the March selection of papers. There are so many cool items in the paper pad, the word strips, postage stamps, graphics, and tags I just used a few other embellishments to finish of the page.

I did not preserve the clover very well, I just let it air dry, so all the color was lost. I coated it with glossy accents to prevent it from tearing, but it did not look very pretty so I just glued it to a tag, placed a Prima flower on the end as a pull out holder, and tucked in under the picture. Here you can also see I used the Prima chalk ink to coat the edges of all the papers and the photo in my layout, it helps soften the look of everything.

Here you can see one of the Prima resins and the beautiful Memory Maze chipboard birdcages, I thought they looked wonderful together.

Here I used a tag cut out from the paper pack and tucked it under the torn and rolled top paper. I then added Prima flowers and tuck in the Maya Road green flower pins (cutting off the part of the pin so they did not stick out) to create the cluster under the tag.

I used Gelatos and water to color the "Good Luck" chipboard from Memory Maze.

Head on over to Memory Maze and Flamingo Scraps to get all your wonderful items for you next scrappy adventure!!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Every
year we go to an event called Burgers and Butterflies to remember our
babies that we have lost. My family goes to remember our daughter
Kristen. In this picture is my son Brandon when he was 2 years old
holding one of the butterflies we set loose to help us remember our
precious "butterflies" that are not longer with us.

I loved the papers, they were just perfect for this layout, but the picture was not the best color of the tones of the paper. So I had fun playing with Photoshop. I turned the picture to black and white, but added the color of the butterfly and his eyes back in. Below you can see the original picture and then the Photoshopped picture.

It really was not hard (my first time doing it) and it helped the picture pop out of the layout so much better.

The
phrase says "Once upon a time... their lived a little girl, a precious
angel that lives with the butterflies, and with the touch of a child's
hand we remember her, so my wish for you .....LIVE"

I
used the single word "live" as my title to help us remember to live for
every moment of every day, life is to short. I painted the "live"
chippy with black acrylic paint, and then painted the vintage corner
under it with gold metallic paint.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

My
husband is serving in Kabul, Afghanistan at Camp Phoenix as part of
Task Force Centurion for the US Army. He deployed in September 2012 and
is still there. We miss him so much. With this picture he sent us
(rather to my oldest son for a school project) I thought it deserved a
grungy layout to go with the colors of the army and also with how dirty
he says everything including the air over there is. We can't wait for
you to come come Captain Reed.

The fun part about doing a layout like this is you can add anything you want. I look at my complete work as a grown up version of an I SPY hunt a find layout. I do try and use objects that fit with the theme of the layout. So masculine, army, manly, worldly, or just geometric shapes were the items I chose.

Here I used all sorts of old plastic jewelry, metal bits, old rivets, plastic chain, and other found items glued them down and them covered them in gesso, let it dry then sprayed them, painted them, and used Gelatos until I achieved the colors I wanted. some of these pieces were black, pink, grey, brown, or white before I grunged them up. One found item was a dog tag that was given to my oldest son that says "With you all the way". I could not resist putting it on the layout, it just ties in so well.

I used various metals, found objects and wonderful
Memory Maze chippies. Here are 2 square buckles, a little angel, and the back small
wheel and handle bar of a penny farthing bicycle (pictures below so you
can find them in my grunge)

Here
I used the front wheel of the Penny Farthing Bicycle, another small
angel, another square buckle, and the word "Best" from "best wishes".

Alexa

FTC Notice:

I am blessed to work in an industry I love. As a project designer and instructor I am often given products to work with. Some of the products I work with have been given to me by companies I design for or sold to me at a discounted rate. While this in no way controls my content (I only use and blog what I love) the government says I have to tell you that I might have gotten some things for free.

About Me

I am a mother of 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls). I have been scrapping since 2007, mostly to scrap my oldest child's baby book and it took off from there. I love to create and to find new ideas.
erinkreed@gmail.com